Discipline
Public relations
Earning attention and trust through the media and the public: media relations, corporate and crisis communications.
Public relations earns attention and trust through the media and the public: media relations, corporate communications and crisis communications. A third party vouching for the story carries a credibility that bought space cannot, which makes PR central to reputation, to launches that need validation and to changes that need explaining. It trades control for credibility: coverage is never guaranteed, and relationships take years to build.
- Public relations
- Content marketing
- Internal communications
- Influencer and creator marketing
Public relations rarely works alone: the disciplines it usually works with, reaching one person.
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What matters when choosing
Real news, data or expertise to offer, before any pitch is written.
Relationships with journalists in your sector, built before you need them.
A message house that keeps every spokesperson on the same story.
A crisis plan that has been rehearsed, with spokespeople who have already faced a camera.
Evaluation of outcomes through research, not counts of press clippings.
Questions to ask vendors and agencies
What will change for the audience if this works, and how will we measure it?
Which journalists and outlets know us already, and how will you earn the others?
When did we last rehearse the crisis plan, and who speaks first?
Common mistakes
Reporting advertising value equivalents, which the profession's own evaluation principles reject.
Counting coverage as the result, when it is only an output.
Paying for coverage without disclosure, which breaks advertising rules and professional codes.
What it is good at
- Credibility that comes from a third party.
- One story that can travel across many outlets.
- Resilience in a crisis, built on relationships and trust.
What to watch for
- No control over what is said, or whether anything is said at all.
- Skilled people and research are not cheap, even without a media bill.
- Trust lost in a crisis is slow to rebuild.
How it is bought and priced
PR buys people and time, not media: agencies usually charge a monthly retainer, a project fee or time by the hour. Tools for media databases, monitoring and distribution, and research for evaluation, come on top; coverage itself is never for sale.
Platforms that fit (3)
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